Somers Campaigns As Outsider In Lieutenant Governor Race

Uttered at every campaign stop and imprinted on all of her volunteers' T-shirts is a word that Republican lieutenant governor candidate Heather Somers has used to define her campaign.

Outsider.

The former Groton mayor is heading to a primary Tuesday against former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker and Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, opponents she characterizes as a "Washington bureaucrat" and a "Hartford insider."

Somers tells voters discouraged by Connecticut's bleak economic prospects that she is a fresh face who has the municipal experience and business know-how to put the state on the path to fiscal prosperity.

"If you want something different out of Hartford, you need to send a different type of person," says Somers, a Groton town councilor and the founder of a biotech firm.

Somers also wants to bring a different approach to the largely ceremonial office of lieutenant governor and envisions transforming the role into one of purpose rather than pomp. Commenting on a "disconnect" between the Capitol and cities and towns, Somers said she thinks the lieutenant governor should have "direct contact" with every mayor and every first selectman "to ask them what's going on in that town so that information can be transmitted back to the governor."

Somers says she hopes to use the role to act as a liaison and policy advocate in the areas of business, health care and municipalities.

"She has a unique set of qualities to bring people together, particularly if she can make that position be more than just presiding over the Senate," said former Sen. Catherine Cook, R-Mystic, who has known Somers for years.

Cook said Somers displays qualities similar to former Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who as lieutenant governor acted as "the face of a government that can be friendly to people."

At a recent campaign stop, Somers sympathized with Don Cammerato, the owner of a Hamden clothing store, about the cost of doing business. She received a nod of approval when she told him of her own experience quitting a "safe job" to start a medical device manufacturing company with two partners. The firm she co-founded, Hydrofera LLC, which she sold in 2012, now sells its product worldwide — a medical foam used to heal infected wounds.

The 48-year-old Groton town councilwoman says she understands the struggles residents face because she has lived them. When she was starting her business, she bartended and waited tables to supplement her income. When she was divorced, she learned the challenges of being a single parent. Now, she is married to Dr. Mark Somers and raising her three children: college-aged twins and a "surprise 4-year-old."

An energetic campaigner, Somers has adjusted quickly in her first statewide bid. She keeps a journal of funny remarks people have made to her as she stumps across Connecticut and tries to convey to voters a roll-up-your-sleeves, hardworking, positive attitude. Before the party nominating convention in May she took delegates sailing to show them that "you can't have a lieutenant governor who can't sail upwind.'"

If elected, Somers would be the first governor or lieutenant governor from southeastern Connecticut in more than half a century. She says the region has opportunities and assets waiting to be tapped, like the "beautiful" waterfront in New London, which "with investment … could be a more booming tourist area."

Somers initially entered the race by joining campaigns with Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton but then decided to run on her own, saying the process "doesn't lend itself to a running mate." Candidates for lieutenant governor and governor are elected separately in the primary, and then paired for the general election.

Sen. Joe Markley, R-Cheshire, recently endorsed Somers. He said she offers geographic diversity that Walker, of Bridgeport, lacks. Both Republican gubernatorial candidates are from Fairfield County. Bacchiochi is not, but Markley said she has "vulnerabilities that I'm afraid will be exploited in the general election."

Bacchiochi has drawn criticism from her opponents for racial remarks she made this spring and for payments she received from the Marijuana Policy Project, which Somers described as "pro-marijuana D.C. lobbyists.'' Somers has hammered Bacchiochi and says she would be a liability to the party's chances of defeating Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in December.

Markley said Somers is a strong campaigner. "She's very effective out meeting people," he said. "She comes across very well."

In her own town, Somers has support even from those who work across the aisle. Groton Mayor Rita Schmidt, a Democrat, spoke highly of her predecessor. She acknowledged that Somers may have cost Republicans the town council majority last fall by pursuing a controversial tax initiative addressing how city and town tax dollars are allocated.

Schmidt said that even though the policy ended up alienating some city residents, its aim was fairness. Somers, she said, "cares deeply about all of the people" and "would take that compassion" to the office of lieutenant governor.

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